When You Come to a Fork in the Road... Take It

There were two mottos for my trip in Venice this past weekend:

1. When you come to a fork in the road... take it.

- Venice is completely a walking city... there are no cars; people use boats and the water taxis to get around. The streets are tiny and wind around in no organized fashion, but somehow through a combination of 100 rights and lefts through alleyways, you can get to when you want to go. So over and over again, we would be confronted with a fork in the road, and the only way to know if we'd end up where we wanted was to take it.

2. Do it for the story.

-My weekend in Venice was one of the greatest times I've ever had. We had such an amazing experience and there were so many moments that happened that makes fabulous stories to remember and so we left with no regrets and just great stories.

We left Milan on Friday in the afternoon and arrived in Venice in the early evening. It was already dark, but we still decided to walk from the train station to our hotel, which was near Piazza San Marco, the famous square in Venice. On google maps, the hotel was a 45 min walk away, but considering we had to stop at every mask store and freak out about being excited to be in Venice, it took us over an hour. We got lost in the tiny streets, making a million turns down alley ways, and we constantly used our little bit of italian to ask where go. We finally made it and were shocked to realize how amazing the location of our hotel was. It was literally a half a second off the Piazza. When we checked-in, they upgraded us to a suite in a neighboring hotel, Hotel San Marco (a 4 star hotel)!! We were freaking out! I seriously thought that we had been "punked" and I was waiting anxiously for someone to jump out and say "HA Joke's On You". The room was beautiful and huge and we were so lucky!

On Saturday, it rained and poured all day... But that didn't stop us. We ventured out, exploring the city, and looking for food. Our feet got completely drenched; all of our clothes and everything was so wet!! We were freezing and wet, but we had positive attitudes and laughed 24/7 so we still had such a great time. We became masters of the city, exploring all the nooks and crannies of the city. The advantage of having the hotel so close was that when we got too wet and cold, we could come back to the hotel, dry off, blow dry our shoes, and rest until we were ready to brave the weather. At one point, the rain and wind was so hard, that all three of the umbrellas we had broke.

What did we manage to accomplish on Saturday? Well we did go into the Basilica di San Marco, which is the fabulous basilica off Piazza San Marco. It was absolutely beautiful, and unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos (you should look it up to see how beautiful!). We also had the best meal I've had since being in Italy. We went to a small local restaurant, where I had the best pasta I've had yet.

Venice is completely different than Milan, but the thing that struck us the most besides the obvious differences was:
A. how touristy Venice felt, especially with Carnevale happening...
...but more importantly...
B. how much English was spoken and how many Americans were around. I realized how much I appreciate Milan not being very touristy and how almost no one knows English. I like going into stores and not being spoken to in English. In Venice, whenever we tried our Italian, people would just ignore it and speak in English.
In addition to that, our encounters with a lot of American students made us kind of embarrassed, in that the reflection of Americans or Americans our age was particularly negative. The students were rude and ignorant and it forced us to be aware of our behavior and try to not come off in a similar fashion.

Anyway, Sunday was really the best day. No rain! Plus the most beautiful weather! We woke up at 6am in order to catch the sunrise on a bridge over the canal. We had hoped to go back to a bridge we had found earlier in the trip, but we couldn't manage to find it that morning. So we were running through the alleys of Venice and made it back to the Rialto bridge and watched the sky gradually get brighter. We got some fabulous photos, and the whole experience was so great, especially because there was no one out on the streets; we had the city to ourselves. Just a few hours later, when we crossed the bridge again, the place was packed with tourists. After our sunrise on the Rialto Bridge, we went back to Piazza San Marco, where the carnevale festivities were beginning. We saw so many people dressed in fabulous costumes and we saw a drum performance. The sun was shining and the square was packed!

My experience in Venice showed me three main things that Venice is known for: masks (masks, and more masks), murano glass, and little bridges. We came and conquered all of them.
- We went to a million mask stores and ended up in one of the most famous ones, La Bottega dei Mascareri. All of the masks were absolutely amazing! We met and talked with the artist of the masks; we even watched him paint one for a short time! Chris bought the most amazing mask from him.
-We all managed to get our little piece of murano glass. :) I got myself a wine bottle stopper of murano glass... fitting for the wine of italy and in honor of my 21st birthday (well.. in 6 months)
-While we had gotten lost a million times, we stumbled upon small neighborhoods with beautiful bridges and amazing sights. Please, if you (all of you) have a chance to get lost in the alleys of venice, DO IT! It's such a magical city! The bridges are so adorable and it's so funny to think about using small power boats as a method of travel. SO INTERESTING!

My last major element of my trip of the Jewish Ghetto. It was one of my main goals while in Venice to make it to the Jewish Ghetto. Well, a. because I am me and thrive off exploring my Jewish roots wherever I go. But, more than that, I remember sitting in 12th grade Shakespeare class with Mr. Paulson reading the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare and loving every moment of it. Probably my favorite quote of all time is from the Merchant of Venice:

Shylock:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
rest, we will resemble you in that. (Act 3, scene 1, 58–68)

It's amazing that issues occurring 500 years ago are still relevant today. Anyway, Venice has a rich presence of Jewish history and it was really cool to explore it. We walked forever to get to the Jewish ghetto, and I am so thankful to my friends for going so out of their way to explore this with me. When we finally found Gam Gam, the Kosher restaurant, I was so happy! I was ready to find my Jewish husband (apparently the Jewish Italian waiters at Gam Gam are super cute!) but the restaurant was packed so no luck :( We walked into the Rabbi's wife outside the kosher Jewish bakery in the ghetto; she was absolutely the sweetest (kind of typical for an American Chabad Rabbi's wife- at least in my experience). She was from America, but her husband is Italian. She invited me for Passover seder and future shabbats, which was so nice of her and I am hoping to do. I bought a murano glass mezuzah and saw some beautiful Jewish artwork in the ghetto shops.

Ok... here's my embarrassing story for you to laugh at me for the rest of time: WE MISSED OUR TRAIN! We got the time wrong. We had been wrong about the train time all weekend. We were off by 2 hours! Luckily, there was another one within the hour to take; unfortunately, our ticket was non-transferrable so we had to buy a whole new ticket (molto costoso!!) :(

...At least we got home! ... and were safe and healthy... and we had the best time. I could not have asked for a better weekend! THANK YOU TO SADIE, CHRIS, and BRENT!


A necessary and important message: THE RAVENS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! AHHHH CAN MY LIFE BE ANY MORE AMAZING! I got home exhausted from the weekend in Venice, and couldn't stay up to watch it last night. But immediately when I woke up this morning, I checked the score and saw that the Ravens had won! I called my mom and woke her up at 2am and she gave me a synopsis of the game. I SO PROUD TO BE A BALTIMOREAN! So happy for Ray Lewis! What a special win. I am so bummed I missed watching it and am not in Baltimore to celebrate, but I am so ecstatic that we won! I BLEED BLACK AND PURPLE (even a million miles away!)


Well that's all folks. Pictures to come. I promise. I have over 300 to sort through!

Ciao!
~E